The files RX.COM and RN.COM are file utilities that are slight modifications of three programs (DR.COM, RN.COM and CO.COM) written by M. Mefford and appearing in PC Magazine. We have taken the liberty of modifying the assembly language listings available from PC Magazine's Interactive Reader Service to fit better our personal needs and tastes; in particular we wanted both the copying capabilities of CO.COM and the file viewing capabilities of DR.COM. We are making these available on the off chance that there may be others who share our sentiments. (Note that the original code is still protected by the Ziff-Davis copyright.)

It should be realized that these changes have been made solely because the two of us - neither assembly language programmers - felt the original programs could be improved a bit, and because we wanted to try. It would surprise neither of us to find that our solutions are not optimal, and it would be even less surprising to learn that the modifications are in fact trivial. So it goes; that's what happens when you let a mathematician and a statistician near a program.

The Programs:

RN.COM is nothing more than a copy of Mefford's RN.COM patched so that F10 now calls RX.COM and not DR.COM and a corresponding patch to the menu. We have toyed with the idea of modifying RN.COM so that one can change drives while still in the program, but nothing has come of that yet - and likely never will.

RX.COM is a modification of CO.COM, the modification being the transplantation of the code for viewing files from DR.COM into CO.COM. This worked almost without a hitch, but there were some difficulties concerning the different ways each program handled directories. Everything seems to be working fine now.

The Instructions:

-For those familiar with RN, DR, and CO:

RN operates precisely as it always has. F10 now calls RX.COM on the highlighted directory rather than calling DR.COM.

RX works identically to CO with the addition of the carriage return enabling the viewing of the highlighted file. At that point all of the cursor keys are active as in the viewing with DR.

NOTE: The WordStar toggle which was available in DR has been set to ON and can not be changed from the menu. This seemed the most useful choice for us; everything seemed readable. If you are going to view binary files though, perhaps this configuration might not be the best (we know a toggle would be better - we already said we weren't REAL programmers!) and this default can be changed in the RX.ASM source - look for WORDSTAR_BIT.

-For those not familiar with RN, DR, and CO:

Both of these programs are menu-driven and that is probably the easiest way to learn their features - play with them. RN is a utility that presents a visual tree listing of the subdirectory structure of a selected drive. It then enables you to add, delete, rename, hide, un- hide subdirectories. It also allows you to change to a selected subdirectory. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, RN will call RX on a selected subdirectory, and upon exiting from RX you will be back in RN.

NOTES: 1) There is a memory-resident option for RN, which no doubt is very useful, but we haven't played with it so if you are interested please refer to the article in PC Magazine.

2) For RN to call RX successfully it seems to need to find COMMAND.COM somewhere in the path.

RX is a wonderful directory lister and file handler. It allows you to do batch copies, moves, and deletes. Each of these is accomplished by marking the chosen files with the grey plus (+) key [files can be unmarked using grey minus (-)] and then using the appropriate function key. Don't be shy; try it out and see how nicely it works. The Verify toggle refers to DOS-copy-verification, all of the copy- move-delete options ask for user verification whenever they are selected. The directory can be sorted by name, extension, size, or date - this can be accomplished either while in RX or from the command line using a /? on the command line, where the "?" can be replaced by N, S, E, D (or T) for sorting by Name, Size, Extension, or DaTe, respectively. Additionally, use of the function keys can be replaced by entering control-shifted characters where ^C, ^D, ^M, ^N, ^E, ^S, ^T, and ^V activate the Copying, Deleting, Moving, sorting by Name, sorting by Extension, sorting by Size, sorting by daTe, and the Verify toggle, respectively. The Esc key will abort any of the move, copy or delete functions at the verification prompt.

Finally, and this is the exciting part, the Return key (carriage return, Enter, whatever you want to call it) activates a full-screen browse of the highlighted files. At this point the cursor control keys (at least those in the vertical direction along with PgUp, PgDn, Home, and End) allow you to view any part of the file! A Return or Esc lands you back in the directory display.

More Stuff:

Yes, we are aware of the program QD that is available as a "shareware" extension of DR and CO. It does many things that RX does not do. It is also, at least in the latest version we've seen (3.30), only distributed in TSR form which we consider a drawback. It is also a commercial/shareware program, and the author requests a "contribution" of $15 - $40. RX is free, and you are welcome to use it as you wish, subject of course to the original copyright by Ziff-Davis on the programs as well as the original source code.

If you are interested in consulting the articles concerning the original programs DR.COM, RN.COM, and CO.COM, the references are: